What is crisis management? As experts state, a crisis in an organization, a nation, business, family, or in a relationship is unpredictable. It comes in times when you are actually best prepared or, worse, least prepared. A crisis may come in many forms, fiscal, relational, or natural. And oftentimes when not prepared, dealt and responded accordingly, a crisis could lead to a catastrophe. The crisis however is never unexpected, which definitely suggests that people in an organization, business, government, family, or relationship know the risks and the incidents that may occur.
This is in this light that crisis management is formed inside an organization. In a business organization particularly, crisis management is also referred to as incident management. Oftentimes it is associated with business continuity management and emergency management. Although these terms only refer to short term or “first aid” response to a crisis. A crisis occurs in different sectors of the society and this does not exempt educational institutions, non-profitable units, and even churches and religious groups. In crisis management, a crisis is defined in three ways: it could mean a threat or risk to an organization, a brief decisive time, or a component of surprise.
One of the definitions of crisis in crisis management is that it is a risk to the organization. But it must be made clear that crisis management is only a component of risk management. The results of a failed risk management all the more cannot be called a crisis.
To better understand the purpose of crisis management, here are its benefits and objectives.
First, crisis management will give the organization the capability to evaluate a situation both from the outside and inside of the body. The second is to aid the organization in the redirection of an unfavorable course. Next is to find ways in implementing business continuity despite crises. Fourth is to gain better resilience. The fifth is to uphold social responsibility. Sixth is to acquire management skills in dealing with serious events. Seventh is to magnify the expectations and roles of every member. Eighth is to augment morale, confidence, and ability within the body. Ninth is to enhance risk management. And finally, crisis management is made to protect the reputation of the organization.
Crisis management has helped many large corporations in the US including Johnson & Johnson which destroyed millions of its medicinal capsules after being sabotaged by a murderer. Crisis management may involve temporary serious incidents; survival however is still the key. So don’t allow the crisis to escalate into a catastrophe.